Fleetwood Mac Volume 2

Lessons

• Lesson 1: Gold Dust Woman

  *Gold Dust Woman,*by Stevie Nicks and from Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours album, is a song that can be played many ways. This lesson looks at fingerpicking it in Dropped D Tuning as well as a simplified way, strumming it in standard tuning. The fingerpicking version is mostly a basic pattern but includes a couple of more sophisticated techniques as well.

• Lesson 2: Big Love

  Big Love was first released on Fleetwood Mac's 1987 album Tango In The Night. Lindsey Buckingham had written it for a solo album he was planning before the band tried to reunite. Their version was a hit in the day but it has since become a staple in Lindsey's solo performances. This lesson is based on some of those versions. Lindsey plays it with a capo at the third, and sometimes fourth fret.

  The song starts with a mono bass pattern, which continues throughout the main sections. It is quite fast and will be a challenge for almost all guitar students. The verse follows a basic chord progression in A Minor but then the chorus introduces a few more chords, changing twice as fast, and includes a very tricky syncopation in a couple measures.

  Next up is a solo that starts with a basic blues lick while the chords change, followed by another different progression with syncopated melody notes, before settling into a rapid, and repetitive line of partial chords up and down the neck. The bass patterns here are more in the alternating style but not the normal two notes back and forth. The song ends with more fast moving chords strummed loudly and energetically.

  All in all, this is a great piece for anyone looking to expand their fingerpicking skills well beyond generic Travis-type patterns and the best approach is to master everything very slowly before working on the speed.

• Lesson 3: Oh Well Part Two

  Oh Well Part Two is the second half of an interesting medley by Peter Green and Fleetwod Mac, and is from the 1970 album Then Play On. Oh Well Part One has been a part of the Target Program since the early days. Part Two is a completely different song, more of a classical guitar piece. It really needs to include an element of improvisation and the lesson goes over some ideas along those lines, as well as specifically what Peter played in the only known recorded version.

• Lesson 4: The Chain

  This Fleetwood Mac song is ultra rhythmic and really fun to play. It is in Drop D tuning and utilizing a few arpeggio patterns. This tune goes from single note playing to chord strumming and back. This lesson will not only having you strumming along in no time, but it will also break down the harmony and chords so you know more detail about the notes your playing…a must learn tune for any Fleetwood Mac fan!

• Lesson 5: Sentimental Lady

  In 1971 Fleetwood Mac went through quite a few personnel changes, one of which completely changed their sound from Peter Green's blues vision to a smoother rock sound with the addition of Bob Welch on guitar. Bob and Danny Kirwin directed the double guitar lineup, complimented with a much greater contribution from Christine McVie.
  Sentimental Lady is a beautiful tune from Bob Welch that Neil has played instrumentally for years. Some recent requests got him interested in looking back at the original and doing a lesson on the way it appeared on Bare Trees in 1972, and a few years later on Welch's album French Kiss.
  The song is in the key of E and uses all six primary chords. The lesson also looks at a couple different approaches to playing the intro. One is simply the way Bob played it live in 1981 but the other combines multiple guitar parts and tries to cover three independent lines.